Fated
by Pelageya
Summary: Someone made a mistake in measuring out Severus Snape's lifespan. It turns out he wasn't supposed to die from Nagini's bite. In recompense, Severus is given another shot at life, five years after the end of the war. Severus/Hermione.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue, Part I: Lachesis's Mistake**

Severus Snape was swinging. He moved gracelessly through the air, his thin, spindly form contorting as he propelled himself forwards and back again. He never changed speeds, nor did he ever attain a height greater than that which he had reached on his previous arc. His movements were even and measured, almost automatic, as though compelled by an outside force.

Severus could not remember a time when he was not swinging. He could not remember a world outside of his present existence, which consisted entirely of a splintery wooden seesaw, a rusty slide, and, of course, a huge metal swing set. A thick white mist surrounded the decrepit playground on all sides; Severus could see nothing beyond its diameter. What was more, he had no desire to do so.

Sometimes Severus thought he caught a glimpse of another person at the edges of the playground. Out of the corner of his eye he would spot dark red hair or slanted green eyes, shining beseechingly from behind the mist. But the vision would vanish almost as soon as he noticed it, and so Severus had eventually stopped noticing altogether.

Such was the existence of Severus Snape, for how long he couldn't tell. As he had no memory of life before the swing set Severus had no frame of reference with regard to the passing of time. He might have been there for five minutes, or he might have been there for a hundred years. Eventually, however, his lonely, undefined existence was interrupted by the sudden materialization of a woman inside the playground.

The woman appeared suddenly, garbed in long white robes with glistening silver hair streaming down her back. She gazed impressively at Severus, who had stopped swinging, his black shoes scraping the ground and bringing him to an abrupt halt.

Severus stared into the woman's wide green eyes for several long moments. The woman stared back, though her gaze became noticeably less impressive and considerably more self-conscious as the seconds ticked by. At last she grimaced and said,

"You are Severus Snape, are you not?"

Severus frowned in distaste. Was that his name? He certainly hoped not—it was a terrible name, ugly and severe.

"You are," the woman said, looking satisfied. "I would recognize that disgusted grimace anywhere."

"And you are?" Severus asked, finding his voice at last.

"I am Lachesis, though there are some who call me Decima."

"One of the three fates!" Severus said.

"You know of us, wizard?"

"Of course," Severus said, his voice haughty. He did not take well to others questioning his knowledge—or did he? Severus frowned, realizing that, apart from not knowing his own name, he didn't know much about his own personality either.

"And? What do you know?" Lachesis pressed, looking at Severus like a proud teacher gazing down at a student who has just answered a difficult question.

"I know that the three fates are actually three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, to give them their Greek names."

"Ridiculous Romans, trying to fix what doesn't need fixing," Lachesis interrupted. Severus glared.

"Anyway," he said, "all cases of name-changing aside, the three sisters have one specific job. They are in charge of the lifespan of every mortal on earth. Upon birth, a person is assigned a piece of string. This string represents their life. Clothos spins the string; Lachesis measures it; and Atropos is in charge of cutting it at the time of person's death."

"Correct," Lachesis said. Severus looked at her expectantly.

"What?" she asked at last.

"Must I really ask what any of this has to do with me?" he said. "Or are you going to tell me?"

"Why the hurry? Perhaps you'd like to get back to your swing?" Lachesis snapped. Severus flushed.

"I don't know why I was swinging," he said. "I don't know why I'm here, or who I am, or—"

"Because of me," Lachesis said quietly, all previous traces of anger gone. "Because of a mistake that I made five years ago, when I was measuring your string."

**A/N: The rest of the prologue should be up later tonight…please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Prologue, Part II: Lachesis's Solution**

"You see, it happens sometimes," Lachesis said as Severus stared at her. "It's difficult, you know, all those strings to measure, and I was never much good with numbers…"

"Do you mean to tell me," Severus said slowly, "that you told your sister to cut my string too early?"

"Well…yes, in a manner of speaking," Lachesis said. "Technically, there wasn't enough venom in that snake's bite to actually kill you. It was just supposed to leave you with a bit of limp, that's all."

"What snake?" Severus asked, bewildered. Was that how he had died? A snake's bite? How pathetic.

"Nagini, of course," Lachesis said. "Though I don't suppose you remember anything about that. You've been in purgatory a long time. It tends to make one forget."

"Purgatory?"

"Yes. This is a sort of waiting place, before a soul moves on. But you never could move on, because you died too early. The afterlife wouldn't accept you."

"So purgatory is…a run-down playground?" Severus asked, his lip curling. He was not much impressed with the gods.

"Just for you," Lachesis said. "Everyone's purgatory is different. This playground represents something from your past, something that was once vitally important to you. That's why you came here."

"Must not have been much of a life," Severus muttered.

"I wouldn't say that," Lachesis said, smiling slightly. "You were loved, after all—greatly loved, for a time."

Severus looked up. Someone had loved him?

"In fact," Lachesis continued, "we've had a bit of difficulty keeping her from coming down from the afterlife to see you. She keeps trying to visit, you know."

"The girl with the green eyes!" Severus said. Lachesis nodded.

"Who—" Severus wanted to ask who she had been. Was she his sister? His mother? His wife? But Lachesis cut him off.

"I can't tell you any of the details. We couldn't have you going back to earth knowing everything about your past life, now could we?"

"Back to earth?"

"Of course," Lachesis said. "I always fix my mistakes, you see. It's taken me a while to track you down—there were an awful lot of purgatories to search through—but I've found you at last. And now I'm going to grant you a second chance at life."

Severus stared. A second chance at life? Was that really what he wanted? The girl with the green eyes was already dead, after all. Maybe he would be better off in the afterlife with her than back on earth alone.

Severus told Lachesis as much, but the goddess shook her head.

"I've told you, you can't go to the afterlife. It's not your time."

Severus sighed.

"Alright," he said. "So what, do I just pick up where I left off?"

"Not possible," Lachesis said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Like I said, it's taken me a long time to find you. Five years in earth time, to be exact. So you'll be starting fresh five years after you died. Of course, we can't just return you to your old body," Lachesis added, looking thoughtful. "That would cause quite a bit of alarm, as you can imagine. So I'll have to fashion you a new one." The goddess suddenly looked excited. "I love designing bodies! Let's see, how shall I form you?"

Severus looked on in confusion as Lachesis closed her eyes, apparently lost in thought. She didn't speak, except to mutter the occasional phrase like "clean hair, this time around," or "a smaller nose for sure."

"Got it!" she said, opening her eyes. "I know exactly what you'll look like. Now, are you ready?"

"What—ready? Of course I'm not ready! You've barely explained anything!" Severus said, alarmed.

"Oh well," Lachesis said, shrugging. "I've got to get back to my sisters soon—I've left Clothos in charge of the measuring, and she's even worse with numbers than I am. I suppose you'll just have to be ready."

She raised a slender hand and gave him a small smile. Severus was about to protest again, but Lachesis suddenly snapped her fingers and everything around Severus went dark.

**A/N: Does this make sense so far? Please review and let me know what you think! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter One: Meeting Hermione**

Severus was lying on his back, his eyes closed, slowly emerging into consciousness from what felt like a decade long sleep. Thoughts and sensations flooded his mind as he awoke. He saw a beautiful woman with shimmering silver hair raising her hand in front of his face; a run-down metal playground surrounded by fog; and a pair of startling bright green eyes peering out at him from a veil of mist.

Severus tried to dam the flood of mental images by opening his eyes, which only resulted in a blinding white glare burning his retinas. He quickly closed his eyes once more and began to take stock of the situation.

He was lying on something gritty and hard that he thought might be concrete. His body felt strange—he wasn't in pain, exactly, but he was uncomfortable, as though his skin was stretched too tightly over his frame. He could feel the heat of a newborn sun across his face, and guessed that it was early morning.

Slowly, Severus opened his eyes once more. This time he was prepared for the onslaught of light and allowed his eyes a few minutes to adjust.

Once he had gotten used to the light, Severus carefully raised himself up from his lying position until he was sitting with his legs splayed out in front of him, his arms propping him up from behind.

Looking around, Severus realized that he was sitting on someone's front doorstep. To his left was a quiet, peaceful looking street, lined on both sides by tall trees and small brick houses. To his immediate right was a pale blue door, which presumably led into a brick house similar to its neighbors.

Suddenly the blue door swung open, revealing a pair of bare feet with pink-polished toenails. There was a moment of intense silence, and then Severus felt two small hands grab him roughly by the collar and drag him inside.

He heard the door slam shut as he was thrown onto the floor. An instant later a sharp stick was jabbed against his neck and he heard a woman's voice hiss—

"Who are you? Tell me now!"

"Sev—I don't know," Severus said. Something buried deep inside his memory told him that his name was Severus Snape, but given the dubious circumstances, he decided not to say this. Anyway, he wasn't entirely sure whether that _was_ his name.

"I know you're lying. Now tell me your name," the woman said, raising her voice slightly.

Severus slowly raised his head to meet the eyes of the woman who had hold of him. He saw soft brown irises, pale lips, and a mess of curly brown hair.

"I honestly don't know," he said curtly. "Now if you would please remove that infernal stick from my windpipe, I would be much obliged."

Severus saw the woman's eyes widen slightly, though the pressure on his neck didn't lessen.

"Tell me quickly how you came to be on my front doorstep, please," the woman said.

"All right, but only because you said 'please,'" Severus smirked. He opened his mouth to tell her why, exactly, he had been reposing on her doorstep moments before—only to realize that he himself had no idea how he had gotten there.

**A/N: So this chapter is insanely short, and rather lacking in plot development. I apologize. Future chapters should be considerably longer; I just wanted to go ahead and get something posted tonight. Please review! **


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